Government & International Relations Seminar Series:

Climate protest – diversity and youth in Australia

Presenter: Stewart Jackson, University of Sydney

Social Sciences Building (A02), Room 650

Climate movements are not so unusual in Australia so much as they are ubiquitous. From small localised groups, anchored to larger more established environmental organisations over 30 years ago, to the multifaceted youth-organised groups that make up the Fridays For Futures/School Strike for Climate movement, climate movements have seemingly built large scale – and widespread – support. What has become increasingly obvious over the past 5 years, however, is the increasing input from young people and youth-led groups, as opposed to established conservationists within larger organisation seen in many previous campaigns.

This paper will use data gathered from a series of protest that occurred between 2016 and 2019. They include two generalised climate protests in Sydney in the lead up to the 2016 federal election, and a student-organised protest in 2019. The data was gathered in two separate tranches, with different selection methods, but utilising a very similar survey instrument, with results suggesting a shift in primary activists and messaging. The data will be supplemented from one smaller field survey undertaken in 2022.

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